Your Computer is Cheating the Infected Phone

Someone's phones claiming to be from Microsoft, an antivirus company, or some random tech support facility. They claim their systems have detected that your computer is infected. Naturally, they do help. So much so that, for just a one-time X payment, they are willing to offer LIFETIME full of guaranteed support.

Ah, but there's actually a catch, 4 fishing.

1. Fraudsters generally want to download the remote access service (usually referring to ammyy.com or logme.in) and give them access. This effectively gives fraudsters full, without restrictions, control of your computer - and remember, these are criminals.

2. Scammers want you to install certain anti-virus programs. Unfortunately, the antivirus software that you sell and install is usually fake or just a trial version. This means that it will either expire or the license will be revoked. Which leaves you sitting with protection that is not working, useless.

3. Fraudsters recommend the latest version of Windows. It's also more likely to be fake. Versions of Windows that are not genuine cannot be updated with the latest security patches. This means you now have an insecure version of Windows to accompany the corrupted antivirus that you also bought from the fraudsters. A double dose of risk.

4. Until now the criminals who were granted unrestricted access to your computer (which would have allowed them to easily install a backdoor Trojan), leaving you with non- working antivirus software and an operating system that cannot be patched. This means that if they drop a Trojan horse on your system (most likely), your antivirus program will not detect it and your operating system will become more vulnerable to any other malware it wants to introduce.

If you have been called by a fraudster, just hang up the phone. If you have already fallen victim, here's what you must do.

1. Fee dispute with your credit card provider. If credit card companies get enough complaints and chargebacks, they can (and will) close the merchant account and blacklist the company. This makes it more difficult - and much more expensive - for fraudsters to stay in business. The only way to stop the scammer is to remove their funding source.

2. If you purchased a new version of Windows from fraudsters, contact Microsoft Customer Service or run Microsoft's genuine verification tool. Do not leave the program installed if it is not valid. You will not be able to get any security updates for it, which means that you will be at risk of malware infection or computer hacking. You should also consider contacting Microsoft Customer Service for assistance.

3. Get rid of antivirus or any other software purchased from fraudsters - the chances of fraud or Trojans are very high.

4. If fraudsters are given remote access to your computer, you should keep backup copies of your data files and reformat and reinstall your hard drive. Skipping this step could leave you with a Trojan system that could leave you vulnerable to bank account theft, credit card fraud, or other financial or computer theft crimes.

The worst thing you can do is do nothing. At the very least contact your credit card company and dispute. Always, buy antivirus from a trusted company like Protegent360